Movie adaptations of video games are an unfortunate reality of the film industry. Typically poorly written, terribly acted and just downright bad, you need look no further than "The Super Mario Bros Movie" to understand my point. However, what do all of these movies, like "Tomb Raider" or "Prince of Persia," have in common? The games they are based off of have already established the background of the world and characters, giving the writers something to work off of. Imagine my shock then when and Angry Birds movie was put into production as an animated feature. Barely anyone can name all of the birds in the game and we don't really know the history of the conflict between the birds and the pigs, besides that the pigs want eggs? I had literally no hope for the success of this movie despite the inevitable box office pull due to the appeal of the game to kids. Imagine, then, my equal mix of shock and pleasant surprise when I watched this trailer:
Well, this is a conundrum isn't it? Has this movie genuinely had some heart put into it or is it the soulless cash-in it appears to be on first glance? Are all of the birds going to have as funny and inventive backstories as Red and Bomb, or have they put all of the best bits into the trailer? Personally, I'm still at sea regarding what to make of this. Credit where credit's due, the voice acting seems top notch. Maya Rudolph seems to perfectly capture the hippie type character of Matilda (the white bird) while Bill Hader seems like the best choice to voice the leader pig of the pack. However, the stand-out of the trailer was of course Jason Sudeikis, who voices Red (guess which bird he is). His voice is brilliantly tuned to the character's facial reactions. The stand-out line for me was the quick statement "Oh, I'm horrible." His sarcastic tone along with the animation quality is fantastic. Hopefully the writers and directors have not put all of their best moments into the first tease. Unfortunately, some of the rest of the jokes fall flat due to a lack of originality. A person getting their hopes up by a girl signalling someone behind him? Oh, great, haven't seen that before.
The aforementioned animation quality is exactly what should be expected from a cartoon movie or TV show in 2016. The simple locations of the game have been beautifully realised in 3D animation, along with the wide cast of characters (just look at the picture above if you were scared your favourite didn't make the cut). Whether the animation can hold up under the inevitably fast-paced catapult sequences as the birds attack the pigs' fortresses is another story, with any sort of tease of these scenes suspiciously absent from the trailer. I'm sure that is my skepticism of any video game adaptation kicking in but the style of animation is phenomenal so far.
My biggest concern with this movie as a whole is the plot. As I mentioned before, the story of the game is not very fleshed out. It is clear that the writers are hoping to show the origins of the rivalry between the birds and pigs but I am still unsure, if only because the plot seems quite familiar so far, with the pigs starting as friends with the birds before turning against each other. What I would want the screenwriters to have ideally done would be to flesh out both the background of the world while also giving the characters the necessary development to justify this movie's existence.
Will a lack of original jokes and a well-written story ruin this movie? Perhaps, but strong animation and voice acting will still be there. Not fantastic, but not awful. In my opinion, this perfectly sums up this trailer and will probably be used to describe the film when it releases it 8 months.
Excitement Meter: 7/10
Directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Danny McBride, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Peter Dinklage
Release Date: May 20th, 2016
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